What if you had very good reasons for going along with a particular piece of ‘woo’? What if, apart from being irrational, you actually had very rational reasons for acting as you do? Most of us don’t walk under ladders. Not because we’re superstitious, but simply because we don’t want a tin of paint to land on our heads.

Here is this week’s question: What Woo Do You Follow For Rational Reasons?

Maybe you take homeopathy because you really like eating sugar pills? Maybe you don’t cross a black cat’s path because you have an authentic phobia of black cats? Maybe you were kidnapped by a cult and if you take off your copper bracelet the leader will burn you at the stake (ok, that one’s a bit of a push…)?

Whatever it is, let us know. We’re hungry for your stories. Feed us!

So, in order to avoid a future of bins and beans, we work. We quite happily jump through hoops we wouldn’t normally bother with in order to get work, especially if it’s a dream job that we really want. This is understandable. But how far would you go? At what point would you draw the line? What if your prospective employer wanted you to – gulp – submit to some woo?

The Question of The Week is this: What woo would you go along with to get your dream job?

Maybe your interviewer wants you to do a personality test that involves astrology? Maybe they want you to take that dubious lie-detector, the polygraph (it happens)? Maybe your dream job involves working with homeopaths or mediums on a daily basis? How much could you go along with to get that job? Can you put your skepticism to one side if you need to?

Let us know in the comments field below…

Once again our perennial Question of The Week has arrived, providing our lovely listeners/readers/trolls with the opportunity to take a break from their lives and have a good old skeptical think.

Many thanks to all of you who responded to our previous Question of The Week, which can be found here. We got some interesting answers. Like that one, this week’s Question comes via a suggestion from one of our listeners, long-standing visitor to this blog, DaveTheDrummer, who said:

“If you were contacted by a wealthy benefactor who was willing to fund the activities of the society and donate substantial sums of money to the cause, and by substantial I mean several tens of thousands of pounds, what would you do with those funds?”

What, indeed?

So this week’s Question of The Week is: If You Were Given A Million Pounds to Promote Skepticism, How Would You Spend It?

Would you set up a woo-fighting army? Maybe you’d send all the homeopaths away on a spaceship like Douglas Adams’ middle men were? Maybe you’d just give it all to charity or to your favourite skeptic? Whatever it is, we want to know. Just bear in mind that we don’t actually have a million pounds to give. In case you were wondering. And salivating.

We look forward to your answers!

The best suggestion we received was from regular listener Stoko, so without further ado here is this week’s Question of The Week, courtesy of Stoko:

What Woo Would Make Someone Undateable?

What level of woo would it take for you to refuse to date someone? Does it bother you at all? Maybe it’s just particular areas of woo: belief in psychics might not bother some people, while belief in god might send them running the other way. Maybe your partner pops homeopathy pills on a regular basis and it’s just an adorable quirk. At what point on the scale of woo would someone become undateable to you?

Whatever your answer, let us know.

Don’t forget, our call for your suggestions for future Questions of The Week is still open. Feel free to leave your suggestions here, or send them to podcast@merseysideskeptics.org.uk. If it’s a good suggestion, we’ll use it.

However, there’s always room for more, and that’s where you come in. We’re interested in your ideas for skeptical events. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a brand new idea, it can be something you’ve just heard of and thought was a good idea. Either way, we want to hear your ideas.

So the Question of The Week is this: What new skeptical events can you come up with?

Maybe you’ve been nurturing the idea of starting up a Skeptics In The Sauna, or have an idea for the perfect skeptical holiday. It doesn’t have to be an event. Feel free to branch out. It’s common for skepticism to advertise itself in the form of podcasts – maybe you have an idea for a new skeptical outlet? Whatever it is, let us know. Then we can steal it and get all the credit…

Please leave your ideas in the comments field below.

This doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a Question of The Week this week, however. We’re nothing less than generous and we don’t want to cheat you, so as well as keeping last week’s question open there’s still going to be a new one this week.

You may have heard Marsh’s skeptical limericks on the new episode of Skeptics With a K released yesterday, as well as my and Mike’s attempts to formulate our own cheesy verse in response. What about all of you at home? Do you think you can compete with Marsh in the Skeptical Limericks stakes?

This is our Question of The Week: Can You Write a Skeptical Limerick?

Why not have a go? If you think you’re up to it, drop us a line. We’d love to hear what you’ve come up with.

Post your Limericks in the comments section below…

What we don’t have is a Skeptics With a K t-shirt. Our esteemed podcast is woefully under-represented in the world of merchandise and shameless cashing in, so we thought we’d open up to our wonderful listeners out there (that’s you!) and ask for suggestions.

Our Question of The Week is this: What Slogan Should Be On Our T-Shirts?

Is there a particular line from the show that you think should be adorning the torsos of Skeptics? Maybe you have another idea for what should be on the shirts. As long as it’s funny and appropriate, and gives a feel of what the show is about, we don’t mind.

So please leave your suggestions in the comments below, or email us if you’re feeling secretive. Winners will receive our undying love…

So the Question of The Week is this: What Foreign Woo Have You Found On Holiday?

Were you accosted by Italian Scientologists? Did a small Brazilian boy try to sell you a mystical crystal skull? Maybe you’ve come across something ridiculous in another country that you’ve never found anywhere else. Whatever it is, let us know. Satiate our desire for new and wonderful woo!

Please leave your answers below.

Questions that is, not audience members.

In the interests of fun, and because it means we don’t have to make a decision about it, we’ve decided that instead of choosing only one of them as this week’s question, we’ll let you answer both. Think of it as a Question of The Year as well as a Question of The Week, an extra special gift from us to you!

So this week’s Question(s) of The Week, courtesy of Andrew Johnston and Tom Williamson are:

1/ If you could have three dinner guests, one living, one dead and one ‘woo’, who would they be?

2/ What ‘woo’ presents have you received?

Maybe you have a thing for white beards and want to have dinner with James Randi, Darwin and Santa; or maybe you once recieved a ‘genuine’ Mayan crystal skull from a boyfriend or girlfriend. Whatever it is, we want to know. I’ll leave the definition of ‘woo’ here deliberately vague, so no-one feels limited. It’s up to your good selves whether you answer one or both questions.

Please leave your answers in the comments section below.

These are just a few of the nonsense ‘facts’ ascribed to martial-arts yeti Chuck Norris that fly about the internet. Fortunately for him, none of them touch on his acting ability. If you listened to our podcast, Skeptics With a K, yesterday, you will have heard Mike ‘The Health Ranger’ Adams’ completely un-ironic list of facts about Skeptics. You know the score:  Skeptics don’t believe in anything, we work for Big Pharma, kill babies, that kind of thing… So for this week’s Question of the Week, we thought he’d give a Chuck Norris inspired response to Adams’ drivel.

The Question of The Week is this: What kind of Chuck Norris style nonsense facts can you ascribe to Skeptics that Mike Adams missed?

The funniest answer won’t recieve anything except our undying admiration, but if that’s good enough for Chuck Norris then it’s good enough for us!